As I sit down at the kitchen table to
eat lunch I suddenly feel lonely as the only other two people at the table, my
wife and daughter, are engrossed in some house decorating, furniture type
magazines and I have nothing but my bowl of soup to stare at. That is when I
notice that my January issue of Roundel has arrived. I exclaim my excitement
that my magazine is here! As I rip open the plastic bag protecting my coveted
club periodical my daughter asks what am I reading and I explain to her that it is Roundel the BMW Car Club's magazine (and only the best club magazine on the planet) and
I set off to read Satch's opening editorial.
My daughter, noticing that I am now ignoring her, asks 'Do all cars have car clubs?’ My immediate answer was 'Of course not, only cool cars have clubs.' She reminds me that 'There is a club for Mustangs' and then asks 'So what cars don't have clubs?'. Again, I, a man filled with the all knowing wisdom of everything cars, quickly replies 'Well you would never see a car club for a Chevy' and my first thought was the Nova but then I realize that old Novas are cool so there is a club. Next on the tip of my tongue is the Impala. No, again, many cool Impalas have driven on our roads and highways, so there must be a club. I stammered a bit and blurted 'Well, cars like the Honda Odyssey and Ford Escort probably don't have clubs' with a finality in my voice that seemed to satisfy her curiosity.
My daughter, noticing that I am now ignoring her, asks 'Do all cars have car clubs?’ My immediate answer was 'Of course not, only cool cars have clubs.' She reminds me that 'There is a club for Mustangs' and then asks 'So what cars don't have clubs?'. Again, I, a man filled with the all knowing wisdom of everything cars, quickly replies 'Well you would never see a car club for a Chevy' and my first thought was the Nova but then I realize that old Novas are cool so there is a club. Next on the tip of my tongue is the Impala. No, again, many cool Impalas have driven on our roads and highways, so there must be a club. I stammered a bit and blurted 'Well, cars like the Honda Odyssey and Ford Escort probably don't have clubs' with a finality in my voice that seemed to satisfy her curiosity.
It got me thinking. Is it only cool
cars that have clubs? Which led to the question what makes a car cool? Is it
exclusivity? Not really, if that were true then why is there a club for the
seemingly millions of Mustangs out there? It must be speed of course, yes,
that's it. No, then how did the Volkswagen Beetle ever earn a club? Nice
looking and sporty? No, the venerable Jeep has a very active club. So what
makes a car cool?
Defining cool cars, which therefore make them club worthy, one must follow the thinking of Supreme Court Justice
Potter Stewart when asked to define hard core pornography. Justice Potter
exclaimed '...and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly (describe what
is pornography)... But I know it when I see it...'. Cool cars are like that,
you just know them when you see them.
A car from the moment it is introduced by its creator is immediately assigned a place in the car world. No matter what the manufacturer might try to proclaim and market, the general public is the final decider of the type of car it will be. Take the PT Cruiser and the Scion xB (both of which have clubs by the way, are they cool? I think not, but I digress). Both of these models were created to reach a young population market with their quirky and different looks, the cars, not the young population. Yet to the manufacturers’ utter amazement, more appropriately stated, shock and despair, old people loved them! With the definition of old in this case people over 30 who most likely have thighs with cellulite or expanding foreheads. So their cool cars became ones in which the uber cool 20 something person and his grandma both find hip. Imagine marketing to those two groups!
A car from the moment it is introduced by its creator is immediately assigned a place in the car world. No matter what the manufacturer might try to proclaim and market, the general public is the final decider of the type of car it will be. Take the PT Cruiser and the Scion xB (both of which have clubs by the way, are they cool? I think not, but I digress). Both of these models were created to reach a young population market with their quirky and different looks, the cars, not the young population. Yet to the manufacturers’ utter amazement, more appropriately stated, shock and despair, old people loved them! With the definition of old in this case people over 30 who most likely have thighs with cellulite or expanding foreheads. So their cool cars became ones in which the uber cool 20 something person and his grandma both find hip. Imagine marketing to those two groups!
In the end, I have done little to
define what makes a car worthy of its own club. It could be because it is cool.
Maybe it is useful and utilitarian or just plain cute. Maybe it is because the people who purchase certain vehicles have similar backgrounds and
interests. They may think 'Let's meet
because we like the same car so we must have something else in common'.
A true statement is that we can never force a
club to start for a car that should never have one. We also can never stifle a club for a car that clearly deserves one.
What to make of car clubs then? When
it comes to starting, participating, or actively promoting and building a car
club just make sure that you join and make your mark. That could be writing
articles, helping to organize events, or simply attending club events and
sharing your enthusiasm and whatever knowledge you might have. Be proud of your
club and make sure to tell others about it, even if your car is not ‘cool’...So
what makes a car cool? Well, it has to do with, oh, never mind.
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